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. WHY . 



Union Labor 



FAILS. 



BY ALFRED MORTON. 



PITTSBURGH, PA. 
1893 



?s ^:^f\N^ 




PREFACE 



It is not the aim of the author to decry Union 
Labor by the pen pictures lierein contained, but to 
try and point out to union men the errors of unionism, 
that are so apparent to all fair minded and unpreju- 
diced workingmen, and by pointing out to the union 
men their mistakes, thereby help to promote a better 
feeling between capital and labor, for there can be no 
permanent progress made by continued strife between 
the workingmen and their employers. 

The AuTHOii. 



COPYRIGHTED, 1893 

ALL BIGHTS KESEKVED. 



OCT 28 1893 J 

v^677 J 



WHY UNION LABOR FAILS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



'Tis oft times claimed by demagogues, 
The great monopolist so clogs 
Industry's wheels— that her huge cogs 

Crush helpless labor down. 
And while this is in part quite true, 
If those who raise this cry would do 
A manly part by labor's crew, 

The crew could laugh or frown, 
At capital whose charge should be, 
Met like the surges of the sea 
That charge in such Satanic glee 

The rocks they cannot rend. 
But 'tween the orators who rail 
At wealth, and wealthy men I fail 
To either see the head or tail 

Of labor's honest friend. 
One excites the cupidity 
Of men, who tell the workman he 
Must rouse up if he would be free 

From grim oppressions's chain. 
And trusting labor up and runs 
Bight at the breech, whose gold-charged guns 
Hurl want and woe to sturdy sons 

Of toil, time and again. 
"Again," we see in many lands 
Rich men oft rule with wanton hands 
The toiler, who, defenseless stands — 

Against their thirst for gold. 
And thus between the capit'list 
And demagogic vocalist 
The workmen are ground to a grist, 

And, like grist, bought and sold, 



For bought and sold they surely are. 
In strikes, bred by the men who mar 
The toiler's cause and raise a bar 

Against their safe progress, 
'Tis they who agitate and prime 
The laborer for any crime 
But keep themselves free of the slime 

That holds him in distress. 
Where oft he falls to suffer pain 
And agony that racks his brain 
And rends his limbs until the strain 

Makes his brave heart to quail. 
And, here, with my pen now I seek 
To utter truths in all I speak 
About the things — makes labor weak 

And strikes so often fail. 



On Drunkenness and the Rights of Speech. 

Now, first, too many men forsooth 
Are not instructed in their youth 
Enough to know half of the truth 

Of how life should be spent, 
And to an ale-house they will go 
To spend a pleasant hour or so. 
And there the flowing bowl doth sow 

The seeds of discontent. 
"Yes," discontent that growing still 
Makes them regard with no good will 
The men who've climbed life's rugged hill 

By years of steadfast toil. 
But foolish men ne'er reconcile 
Themselves unto the plodding style 
Of men who've worked and saved the while 

To meet this world's turmoil. 
And having seen life's gilt edged side, 
At last they join the throngs who glide 
Along on folly's restless tide 

Where fools haste to their fall ; 



And sip, by sip, from pleasure's cup 
They drink each sweeily poisoned sup 
Until the dregs once gotten up 

Taste bitterer than gall. 
For now the follies of their past 
Lives stand revealed to them at last 
.As thoughts and eyes they backward cast 

O'er those brief years of time, 
Wherein their youth and strength has fled 
And left them with the hoary head 
Made premature by vice that led 
Them to the doors of crime. 
And thus they stand amid the foes 
To union labor's sweet repose 
When all's well, and add to her woes 

When she is in travail. 
And some new movement's having birth 
To help the toiler's here on earth, 
Then drunkards they help break the girth 

Lets labor's movement fail. 
For they must drink, let come what will, 
And while drink can be gotten still 
By work, they'll work, though they work ill 

To union labor's cause. 
A-gain they're thorns in labor's thigh 
When in the labor halls they ply 
The rights of speech— rights they deny 

To men who see the flaws 
And inconsistencies so wild 
In language used by some work-child 
When some employer gets reviled 

For daring to exclaim 
"That he had rights by which he'd stand 
Against united labor's hand, 
Besenting each unjust demand 

The union men might name. 
And men, who're just enough to speak 
In labor halls against the weak 
Bash talk of men who only seek 
To further their own ends, 



6 



Are so insulted by the tools 
Of sottish, selfish, ranting fools 
That calm, indeed, is he who rules 

Himself while he contends 
For justice ffom his workmates there 
For treatment upright, manly, fair 
For man and boss, that each may share* 

The fruits of harmony. 
But prejudice and ignorance 
Oft reign with such intoJerence 
That prudence has not got a chance 

Amidst such ribaldry. 
Then men who are conservative 
In thoughts and acts, disgusted, give 
Way to the discord we see live 

Where order once prevailed. 
And from the lodge the prudent man 
Will go to leave the ranks that ban 
Out common sense the while they plair 

The strikes so oft have failed. 
Through blind and dumb aggressiveness 
Lacking the true cohesiveness 
That binds men who've wrongs to redress- 

In unity so grand 
That naught shakes the fidelity 
Of all the elements who see 
That in concord lies victory 

For labor's faithful band. 
But dare we hope for concord sweet 
Where sots and sober men oft meet. 
And, with harsh words each other greet 

In place of words of love? 
That men have used who have progressed 
In aught that succored the distressed 
Men who have had their wrongs redressed 

Through God, who rules above, 
And not through men upon the brink 
Of madness, bought at bars that stink 
With sweet draughts found for men to drink" 

In Satan's gilded wells. 



"Where men can buy a burning thirst 
"That slowly drags them down, accurs'd, 
Through bar-rooms — so oft good men's first 

Steps into living hells. 
'''Yes," living hells of misery 
Wherein each wife and family 
Must share each father's iufamy 

And suffer for his crimes. 
But when the union men will see 
That those who join their ranks must be 
3Ien full of sound morality 

Then strikes will ring less chimes. 



On "Walking Delegates. 

"Again," a source of labor's woes, 
And one that breeds her many foes 
Are many of the men who pose 

As walking delegates. 
Who visit all the workshops 'round 
Where union workingmen abound — 
To right whatever wrongs are found 

By these same advocates. 
Who see that each man's card is clear 
Of dues at each term of the year, 
And men whose cards are good need fear 

No trouble at their hands. 
But if a man is in arrears, 
-Or a non-unionist appears. 
These advocates assail their ears 

With threats that are commands 
To be obeyed would they remain 
At work and thus their jobs retain. 
For the fraternity doth reign 

With such audacity 
T'hat few men dare assert their rights 
As citizens against the bites 
•Of delegated parasites, 

Moved by rapacity, 



8 



To plunder ail with wliom they meet 
Regardless of how tiieir deceit 
Affects the men for whom they treat 

As agents who perform 
A work that calls for honesty, 
With wisdom and true courtesy, 
In the men we to often see. 

But help produce a storm. 
For soon their arbitrary style 
Of doing things begins to rile 
The firms who have stood for awhile- 

Their most despotic sway 
Until aroused to bitter ire 
Of walking delegates they tire, 
Eesolved to keep employed or hire 

The men, the firms shall say. 
Thus, warfare is engendered there 
Where ev'rything was once so fair 
Because the firms will no more bear 

To be dictated to. 
And often bloody is the strife 
Where these disturbances are rife 
That often ends some workman's life 

Before the strife is through ; 
And capital comes out on top 
Because of men she raised a crop 
To run the works that had to stop 

When tyranny assailed. 
The firms who now have naught to state 
To the men, who upon them wait, 
Except they've closed the workshop's gate" 

Upon a strike that failed 
Through the lack of sagacity, 
Of justice and veracity. 
Of those whose incapacity 

Was well matched by their gall, 
And men who see in unity 
Labor's grand opportunity — 
To help all her community. 

Should not invite her fall 



"By sending out such advocates 
As are some of the addle-pates 
Who pose as walking delegates, 
To but bring woe to all. 



On Supply and Demand. 

_And still a thorn in labor's side 
Is how to keep a mart supplied 
With just enough of men to stride 

Along with the demand ; 
Por forcing wages up too high 
Brings an excess of the supply 
For the demand, and by and by 

Reaction brings her hand 
'T?o bear oft times with crushing force 
Upon the men who have no source 
•Of succor^but to wait, of course, 

'Till better times arrive. 
Or else to emigrate elsewhere 
And run the risk of better fare 
'Their shattered fortunes to repair 

And thus again to thrive. 
Now, better than this forced up wage 
Are wages that will not engage 
Attention from the men who gauge 

The markets everywhere, 
And when they see some mart that cries 
Aloud for men while wages rise. 
The better to procure supplies. 

These nomads soon flock there, 
And in a few years at the most 
We see a large and idle host 
■«Of men who may not want to post 

Off to some other town ; 
And then there's no alternative 
If men in concord want to live — 
.But take the pay the firms can give. 

For wages will come down 



10 



As sure as that men will have food 
To feed the young ones of their broody- 
And vile are the men who are lewd 

Enough to harm all hands 
On purpose to keep wages high ; 
Thus, still attracting strangers nigh 
Eegardless of how the sui)ply 

So outweighs all demands. 
Now, in a case like this 'twere best^ 
However much men may detest — 
Eeduction, to accept the guest 

'Till better times prevail. 
For, if a strike is brought about. 
The men who are thus ordered out 
Are certain sure to meet with rout, 

For such a strike will fail 
Because among the very first 
To leave the ranks are those who thirst 
For other's blood — but never durst 

Risk a loss of their own, 
Unless 'twas with a gang at night 
To kick and maul some luckless wight^- 
But from a square and manly fight 

Their courage has all flown. 
But when the workingmen discern 
That demand is a factor stern 
In regulating what they earn, 

They wont so often rise 
Against that firm that cheerful stands 
And offers to their working hands 
A chance to live 'till the demands 

E'en exceeds the supplies. 



On Piece Work and Day Wages. 



And still a scourge for labor's back 
To bruise her form with each rude whack 
They give her, are the men who lack 
The skill of tirst- class hands. 



11 



But working at their sundry trades, 
United by well drilled brigades, 
They think by systematic raids 

To get all their demands. 
And hence the poor men want as much 
Pay as the men whose skill is such. 
That they can charm each thing they touch 

Into a work of art. 
Now where men work by piece-work's plan, 
^Tis counted just 'tween man and man, 
That each shall earn whate'er he can, 

And men who are real smart 
May earn more wages than the rest. 
And none deny their right to test 
Their own ability, and wrest 

The full worth of their skill— 
From those, who hire them for their work, 
From those, who lose naught if they shirk 
Away their time — 'till others jerk 

Away the prize at will, 
For piece-work is the very thing 
"To make ambitious men to cling 
Around their tasks can they thus bring 

Their talents to the fore ; 
And also pass men overgrown 
With conceit, at skill they had shown — 
Self satisfied that they had flown 

As high as they could soar, 
^o competition ever serves 
To brace up combative men's nerves 
Until they mount the graded curves 

Of skill, to wealth and fame. 
And if you take away the prize 
•Of extra pay for enterprise 
Men have no incentive to rise 

And try to win a name. 
Thus piecework is a factor seen 
"To make men both watchful and keen 
'Of any chance whereby they glean 

An increase of their pay. 



12 



But where the men they all engage 
In toil for diff 'rent rates of wage 
'Tis very hard to truly gauge 

What each man's worth a day 
And still suit all the men employed 
In a shop where we find alloyed 
The genius. And the men who're void* 

Of ingenuity 
And cannot rise out of the class 
Of men whose merits never pass 
Them o'er the heads of the great mass 

Of men found in class three. 
We also find a man with speed 
On certain work where there's no need 
Of extra skill — and he may lead 

The van among a crew 
Of men who are all qualified 
Alike in speed and skill to stride 
Along and all their defects hide 

Within class number two. 
Another man may have great skill, 
Another have great speed and still 
Be a good workman, one who will 

Leave all his work well done. 
For these mechanics they have made 
Themselves the masters of their trade 
In every branch until they grade 

Fit for class number one, 
While those who cannot reach class three^- 
And know their inability, 
Would be wise in a large degree, 

To try some other trade. 
But there's one fact that's widely known, 
There are men who will never own 
That they, themselves, have never shown' 

Skill of the highest grade. 
And these men never rest content 
Until in labor's hall they vent 
Their pent up spleen so often meant 

To hide their jealousy, 



13 



Of those who are more skilled than they^ 
And thus command a higher pay, 
Because they've studied night and day 

Their duties zealously. 
And here is where the union men 
Make one of their grand errors when 
The rates of pay are good and then 

O'er confident they try 
To bring the lowest rate per day 
Up to the second rate of pay, 
Reckless of the fact that their sway 

Depends on the supply 
Of men who may be had at will, 
Their places in the shop to fill. 
Should they be fools enough to kill 

Themselves with their own greed ; 
In striking at a so-called trust. 
By asking terms that are unjust, 
And simply fill with deep disgust 

The men who loathe the deed. 
While, as a rule, those who insist 
The most to strike are those who've kissed 
The flowing bowl, so oft they've missed 

The chances of their lives. 
Or else they are the poorer class 
Of artisans who'll not let pass 
A chance with radicals to mass, 

And up and use their knives 
Against a firm who may have known 
The worth of the chiefs who had sown 
The seeds of av'rice that have grown 

To such proportions now. 
The firm has left but one resource. 
And that is to meet force by force, 
And when they get new men, of course, 

'Tis then begins the row. 
Because these communists have vowed, 
That a non-unionistic crowd 
Of workmen ne'er should be allowed 

To gain the workshop's door 



14 



Before they'd waged a bloody fight, 
And proved to the world they were right, 
By blows thdt were struck with such might, 

They dyed the sod with gore. 
And soon upon the scene arrives 
The men who must run for their lives 
Or contend with the horde that strives 

Their bodies to assail. 
And some are beaten to the ground 
And jumped upon while blows resound 
On ev'ry hand where there is found 

A man who'll still prevail 
Against the noV exultant mob 
Of frenzied men who feel no throb 
Of pity for each man they rob 

Of his blood or his life. 
And then the firm on Justice waits 
To open up the workshop's gates 
And save their new men broken pates 

While rioters are rife. 
And Justice answers to the call 
And sends her guardians to awe all 
The acts that may lead to a brawl 

And further fearful strife. 
But suddenly there gathers 'round 
'The oflScers on duty bound — 
The strikers, who, all armed are found 

With a club, gun, or knife. 
While angrily they speak aloud 
About the dirty, scabbing crowd • 
They thought they had so badly cowed, 

None of them would remain. 
But now, escorted by the law, 
The blacksheep they appear once more, 
And, at last, with a sullen roar. 

The strikers charge again 
On Justice, who, with visage grim, 
Bepells the foemen with such vim 
That soon the living ones grow dim 

Because of foot they're fleet. 



15 

And, pell-mell, run away in haste 
Before the Nemesis who chased 
Them from the field they left disgraced 

And o'verwhelmed in defeat, 
While those who lie dead on the ground, 
Their life's blood flowing from each wound^ 
Are borne oiF at the closing sound 

Of this most sad affray. 
" But where," were all those haughty braves 
Who dug these men's untimely graves, 
" Yes," where were all those naughty knaves, 

" Oh ! " where, "Oh !" where were they ? 
For not one fell in this melee 
To lose his life or liberty 
And leave his wife and family 

To toil in misery 
While he lived on within the gloom 
Of prison walls, a far worse tomb 
Than had he bravely met his doom 

In this catastrophe 
That cost these other men their lives ; 
Some leaving children and their wive& 
To fight with a woe that deprives 

Them of their dearest friends, 
The husband's and the father's dear, 
The late providers of their cheer, 
Their protectors — who now draw near 

The grave, where there descends 
The bodies that are laid to rest 
In Nature's ever-kindly breast 
While hearts bleed at the sad request, 

Here ever rest in peace. 
And then the mourning calvacade 
Returns home from the flowered glade 
Where sleep the dear ones they have laid 

Away till strife shall cease. 
" But where," were all those braggarts bold 
Who brought this grief to labor's fold 
Through tirades they had preached of old 

Against monopoly. 



16 



Yet, when Mars let his standard fly 
None of these cowards they were nigh 
To force the fight. To do and die 

Or set the toilers free, 
As they had vowed that they would do 
Should ever labor's gallant crew 
Proclaim the hour had come to hew 

Their tyrants to the ground. 
They had declared they'd lead the van 
Of battle for the rights of man. 
Yet, when this sharp conflict began 

Scarce one of them were found. 
Except where they most ever are. 
At headquarters. Or at a bar. 
While Justice made the ground to jar 

Beneath her mighty tread. 
In forcing all of those to yield 
Who forced the onset on the field 
Their weapons once again to wield 

Upon a blackleg's head. 
And foiled in this they then withdrew 
Before the Nemesis who slew 
The comrades who so rashly flew 

At the majestic law. 
Who soon has order well restored, 
And these misguided men so awed, 
The bullied firm they can afford 

To run their works once more. 
Along the business paths of old, 
As though a strike had never rolled 
Within the precints of the fold, 

Where strangers now are seen, 
Beplacing such of those who went 
Out with the tide of discontent, 
That left the shop but to repent. 

For having foolish been 
In hearkening to those who caught 
Them in the mesh, were they were taught 
To realize the havoc wrought 

Themselves by self conceit ; 



17 



In thinking that they could subdue, 
The firm to kneeling to the crew 
Of malcontents who thus e'er strew 

The herbage of defeat, 
Because they have not got the sense 
To let each man have recompense 
According to his skill, and hence 

These disasters assail 
The ranks, whose wisest men can see, 
They e'er lose their prosperity, 
And e'er are vanquished easily 

Where arrogance doth fail 
To frighten men who will not fly 
From adversaries they defy, 
Resolved to conquer or to die 

Upon the battlefield. 
Ere they will kneel to the salvo's 
Of bluster from blatant bravo's. 
Whose courage lurks within their toes 

When they must fight or yield, 
As oft they must throughout the world, 
When independence gets so furled 
With insolence that both get hurled 

Aside for many years. 
Until again another crop 
Of union men rise to the top. 
To reign and then again to drop 

In sorrow, pain and tears. 
As they have done in ages past 
When giant guilds have been o'ercast 
Because their haughtiness at last 

Became too much to bear, 
And all their mighty power proved 
Destructible to anger grooved 
In righteousness, whose strength removed 

Laws that had grown unfair. 
And thus 'twill ever, ever be, 
Till Time sinks in Eternity, 
Naught stands, 'less truth and honesty 

They are the corner-stones 



18 



On which the fabric's they are raised, 
Whose beauty makes the world amazed 
And makes the authors' names be praised 
When perished are their bones. 



On Apprentice Boys. 



And still at union labor's breast 
Appears a thorn piercing her chest 
And causing her much grave unrest 

Through the apprentice boys 
Who come between masters and men 
A bone of trouble oft times when 
There should be naught but peace, but them 

The bound boy he annoys 
The union men when he's not bound 
By the laws the men hedge around 
Their trades fenced in like sacred ground 

Whereon none can intrude 
Without the workmen first consent 
To train the boys on learning bent, 
Or else they show their discontent 

In acts unkind and rude 
Towards the boys, whoe'er they be, 
Who rouse up the men's enmity 
By being bound, but yet still free 

From unionism's claim, 
And every chance the men have got 
At such bound boys they make things hot 
For the apprentice who is not 

Bound in the union's name. 
And this oft leads to bitter strife 
Between a firm and those who'd knife, 
A boy oft led a weary life 

Unless he's strongly made. 
And quick to resent each rude act. 
By words or deeds so full of tact. 
The men soon realize one fact 

That boy will learn the trade, 



19 

No matter what rough jokes beset 
Him on the course that has so whet 
His will that he means to upset 

All the obstructions thrown 
Across his path to block his way, 
Because he does not tribute pay 
To union workingmen who say, 

This boy we will not own 
Until he yields us revenue, 
To help to float our union's through 
The storms encountered by the crew, 

Who have our by-laws made. 
While should the men the strongest be. 
Sometimes a boy is easily 
Ejected from a shop where he 

Had sought to learn a trade ; 
Because the spokesmen for the hands. 
Present unto the firm demands, 
That leave the firm shoaled in the sands 

That would their trade destroy. 
Unless they knuckle to the cheek 
■ Of men who know the firm dare seek 
No quarrel to protect a weak 

And helpless 'prentice boy. 
Buf if the case is the reverse, 
The firms feeling that through their purse 
They can afiford in language terse. 

To tell the men "Oh no," 
We'll not discharge these boys to weep. 
While we stand round like frightened sheep 
Bayed by the hounds, at work we keep 

To hunt us to and fro. 
'Tis then the men, if unsubdued, 
May fall into an ugly mood. 
And by their sullen attitude 

Provoke an open fight. 
Through being told to use the lash 
Upon the firms and soundly thrash 
Them all for trying with their cash 

To break the union's might. 



20 

And foolish men where thej are strong 
Consider not the right or wrong 
If they but think they help along 

Their cause, they've no regard 
For what a l&rm may have to say 
About their autocratic sway 
When they command — firms must obey 

And the bound boys discard 
Or else a stubborn strike ensues 
In which both men and masters lose 
Much time and wealth while the world views 

The fight waged angrily 
Between the unions and the firms 
Who'd suffer long — 'till like the worms, 
They turned against the unjust terms 

Of the fraternity, 
Whose actions often show they aim 
To let none but the union's name 
The boys who have a right to claim 

A chance the trade to learn. 
And there's where union workmen make 
Another grave and sad mistake. 
For acts like these at last awake 

The wrath of those who spurn 
All offers of a compromise 
On any terms wherein there lies 
Concessions from the firms who rise 

Against the policy 
Of having union workmen say 
The number of the boys who may 
Start at a trade to learn the way 

How to mechanics be. 
And where each firm determined stands 
Against the striking working hands 
Who know that they have made demands^ 

Devoid of common sense. 
Some of the men will soon conclude 
That their offensive attitude 
Is suicidal if but viewed 

By sound intelligence. 



21 

And once the men of thought can see 
That in the place of victory 
They're face to face with misery. 

What wonder if they swear 
They will not any further strive 
Against a force that does deprive 
Their homes of food to keep alive 

The loved ones who are there. 
Especially will this be true 
When the firms can secure a crew 
Of men with which to run anew 

Their workshops as of yore, 
While the old workmen walk around 
In sadness where they have not found 
Work that will keep want, safely bound — 

Outside their cottage door. 
But all the destitution wrought 
By such a strike as this were naught, 
If none but the promoters caught 

The fury of the gale 
That rarely strikes the eloquent 
Projectors of the whirlwind spent 
Upon the men too innocent 

To think their strike could fail. 
Because their leaders they had swore 
The firms could run their works no more- 
Without the men who now see o'er 

Themselves grim poverty. 
And what a lesson here is burned 
Into the hearts of those who've learned 
The folly of their having spurned 

Away prosperity. 
When they denied both boys and firms 
The power to arrange the terms 
By which the boys became trade worms 

Hungry to find the art 
Found in the shops— the training schools 
Where they are taught to use the tools 
That makes them skilled workmen or fools- 

As they are dumb or smart. 



22 



Now, union men should bear in mind 
They have a right to shield their kind 
From competition that would grind 

Them all into the dust, 
While men and firms alike should see 
That each would benefited be. 
Would they but mutually agree 

Upon a plan that must 
Be lived up to by all the men, 
By all the firms as well, and when 
This state of things exists, why then 

Something like this we'd see — 
A given number of bound boys 
To each twelve men, each firm employs, 
Av'raged throughout a year, of joys — 

To all — would all agree 
That such and such should be the plan 
By which apprentice boys began 
The learing taught them by each man 

Among the brotherhood. 
Who have a right to welded be 
Together and so soli'dly 
That none will dare to wantonly 

Assail their common good. 
But where the brotherhoods they spurn 
Down boys who seek a trade to learn, 
The world applauds the boys who turn 

And find a way to crawl. 
The long rough journey up the hill, 
Searched eagerly to find the skill. 
Found by the boy who has a will 

That quails not at a fall. 
A fall that lets him rise again 
Instructed by the twinge of pain 
That nerves his heart, his arm, his brain, 

And wins him victory 
In spite of all the well laid plans, 
Hatched out by union labor clans. 
Whose adherents enforced the bans 

Proclaimed in secresy. 



23 



And thus also the firms who rise, 
Against a wrong that multiplies, 
And but their hate intensifies, 

Will find a way to cast 
The objects of their scorn aside, 
Though they must search both far and wide 
To find the steed on which to ride, 

To conquest at the last. 
O'er those who held the sway so long, 
They thought themselves to great and strong,. 
To ever be scourged by a thong- 
Held in a victor's hand. 
But thus 'twas ever and 'twill be 
Through ev'ry coming century. 
There comes a time when tyranny 

Falls 'neath a victor's brand, 
And those whoe'er seek to dictate 
To other men how to walk straight. 
May find, alas ! when far too late. 

They cannot longer claim 
A better knowledge of the arts 
Of dictation ? than one who starts 
Late at the play, but breaks the hearts 
Of those who lose the game. 



On the Rights of Non-Union Men. 

And last of all the greatest pains 
Of union workmen's hearts or brains 
Are those defeats that are the gains 

Of their mad policy 
Of forcing workmen who have got 
Through them to mingle with each sot ' 
Who says non-union men are not 

To tolerated be 
Unless they will consent to bear 
With union men the cost and care 
That keeps alive and in repair 

The great machinery 



24 



•Of unionism as she moves 

So oft within the narrow grooves 

Of selfishness that so oft proves 

A curse to unity. 
Because some unseen snag appears 
To check the union men's careers 
When they begin to pull the ears 

And kick the men who don't, 
From sincere motives, join the throng 
That moves the huge machine along 
Up to the men who've courage strong 

Enough to say, I won't 
Join with a class that wants to drive 
Their fellow-men into a hive — 
And there to make them help to strive 

Against those still outside. 
And finding moral suasion fail 
To make these manly hearts to quail 
The union men turn round and rail 

At them, and them deride. 
While soon the union men are seen 
To bring their powerful machine 
To force these men into their seine — 

Or strike them in their flanks 
Through the committeemen who vent 
Their grievance to the firm who's bent 
Their ears to those who represent 

United labor's ranks. 
The grievance chiefly will consist 
Of an appeal to have dismissed 
Each man who's a non-unionist 

From out the firms employ. 
And if the appellants should meet. 
With success then their comrades greet 
Them with a fervor that's replete 

With unionism's joy. 
This oft has been where firms were blessed 
With work that kept them so hard pressed, 
'They would not risk being distressed 

By starting an aflfray, 



25 

That would not help them anything, 
But might great losses to them bring, 
So they've knelt to the labor ring 

And sent the men away. 
But where firms have not been annoyed 
With work that kept them thus employed^ 
And feeling they are but decoyed 

To help commit a wrong, 
They may not haste to go and weed 
Out of their works, men, they may need 
So badly, that 'twere hard indeed 

To run their shops along 
Without the men who still refuse 
To in the labor ranks enthuse — 
But in a week the firm must choose 

To meet or shun a storm. 
Because the workmen's committee's 
Have named the day hostilities 
Commence, unless the firm decrees, 

That they will then conform 
To all the union men's commands — 
By their discharging all the hands 
Objected too in the demands 

Made by the labor clan. 
And soon arrives the fateful day. 
Sees started up the hateful fray 
When a firm has not sent away 

The men under a ban. 
But lo ! the firm is resolute 
In holding out against the brute 
Force of the men who thus dispute 

Men's rights to liberty, 
To liberty of conscience ; freed, 
From the restraint of sect or creed. 
While they the common statutes heed 

That lets men equal be. 
With other men who have the right 
To toil for wealth for sup or bite, 
To toil for aught, may them delight 

When enjoyed by the flame 



26 

Of honor, that grand light that burns 

Within the souls of men and turns 

Their thoughts to each command that learns 

Men how to pass by shame. 
And when a firm views things this way, 
'Tis hard to make such firms obey 
The whims that may a despot sway 

According to his mood. 
And so the firms have named a day 
Wherein these foolish men they may 
Eeturn to toil and thus allay 

This most outrageous feud, 
Or else the firm will seek for new 
Men to replace their former crew 
Of employes who had withdrew 

Themselves from out the works. 
When their employers would not send 
Away the men who now depend 
Upon the firm to win, to end 

The mischief that there lurks 
Around the plant, where slowly comes 
l^ew faces while the workshop hums 
With industry, and growing sums 

Of work turned out each day 
Until the plant is made to ring 
With each department in full swing, 
And prosperous — forthwith to bring 

The firm safe from the fray. 
Waged by the firm successfully 
Against the sordid bigotry 
Of those who so relentlessly 

Assailed men's right to be 
Aloof from any creed or clan 
That put men underneath a ban 
Who would not join them in their plan 

Of having Liberty. 
But see how fares the striking throng 
•Of once proud men who'd felt so strong 
They would insist to rush headlong 

Into the arms of strife 



27 

To meet disaster and defeat, 
Dismay and poverty complete. 
Because their foolish self conceit 

Invoked the victor's knife 
Which fell on those men who had earned 
The wrath of those men who had turned 
In angry righteousness and spurned 

The union men away 
Out of the works from which they'd sought 
To throw the men who'd bravely fought 
For freedom, from the clan who'd thought 

To rule the works for aye. 
And so 'tis ever with the firms, 
At last forced to defy the terms, 
Have emanated from the germs 

Whose fruit became as gall, 
Through customs made by labor's crew, 
And enforced with a zeal that's drew 
Down wrath from those employers who 

Struck blows to free them all 
From the oppressive galling chain. 
Of strikes and boycots that had slain 
Firms who'd struck at a tyrant's reign 

Beneath the unity 
Of working men, who'd arrogate. 
In labor halls to legislate. 
And control the affairs of state 

With such impunity. 
Employers they had naught to do. 
But bend down to the men who grew 
More insolent as boycots slew 

The scoffers of their strength, 
'Til strikes the common cause of strife 
Has caused boycots to grow so rife, 
Wealth has combined to take the life, 

Has run a despot's length. 
For over all the Christian world 
The union workmen have been hurled 
From off" the heights, from which they twirled 

The lash so oft let fall 



.28 

On those who'd their displeasure bought, 
By asking something that had v^rought 
To fury those rash men who'd thought 

Their unity a wall. 
That naught could ever overthrow, 
No matter how bad trade might grow, 
They still defiantly would show 

A bold front to the last, 
And so they've sent from union hives. 
Terms that have made rich men use knives, 
Whose golden blades slashed out the lives 

Of union men to cast 
Them faint and weary on the ground. 
Exhausted by starvation's wound 
While other workmen have been found 

Glad of the chance to earn 
A living at the terms refused 
By men so oft falsely enthused 
'To strike at firms so oft abused. 

Until the firms return 
With int'rest all the kicks received 
From union men who had believed 
They owned the firms and so relieved 

Their rage time and again 
By wanting this and wanting that, 
And when refused they would strike at 
The firms who've struck the workmen flat 

To learn good sense through pain. 
As men have ever learned good sense 
Through dearly bought experience 
With woes, whose pains were so intense, 

The strongest hearts have quailed 
iBeneath the lessons they were taught 
When to themselves they havoc wrought 
By folly that had forced and fought 

A fight where folly failed 
To overcome the stubborn foes 
Who turned oft' all of folly's blows 
So well that at the battle's close 

'Twas folly, had to flee 



29 

Before the arm of Justice, who 
Struck right and left a path to hew 
"Through foes her valor overthrew, 

Though they fought warily. 
And ere I close my present lay 
I have a few more words to say 
That may help to bring forth a day 

When strikes and strife may cease, 
And all the world can join with me 
In bringing forth things that can be, 
If all will but strive honestly 

To see the world have peace. 
First of all, the young folks should be 
Taught to uphold sobriety, 
For through their drunken levity 

Men of high rank have fell ^ 
From honor's path borne by a thirst 
That led them slowly to the worst 
Debaucheries — to plunge head first 

At last down into hell. 
And many of the strikes and jars 
Would not be seen but for the bars 
Where young men drink and smoke cigars 

And urge each other on 
To just another glass or so, 
Tet, meanwhile, little do they sow 
To reap when on them age will grow 

And youth and strength be gone. 
<jone with the money they had spent. 
While vice had aged their forms and sent 
Into their hearts the discontent 

Lives there from day to day 
Because they find their manhood gone, 
Tet they must work to still live on. 
Hopeless of joy when life is done 

On earth, for aye and aye. 
Next, all rich folk should ever teach 
Poor folks to live within their reach — 
By practicing all that they preach. 

Urge all poor folks to try 



30 

To lay aside a little sum 

For the storms that are sure to come 

To ev'ry humble toiler's home 

When hard times they are nigh. 
But oft a poor man's sustenance 
Is a crumb from the loaf of chance 
Strewn by rich men's extravagance 

When bent on a good time, 
That little good does for the poor 
Who dwell behind the cotter's door 
And scarcely can place bread before 

Children inured to crime. 
And those who've wealth at their comman(J^^ 
Should take out with a gen'rous hand 
The wages paid each toiling band 

Of men of low degree. 
So that the poor man cannot say 
I live ; O, God ! but, that I may 
Just place my children on the way 

To rise o'er poverty. 
" Again," all those men who would se& 
All workmen joined in unity 
Must stamp out from their company 

Aught of frivolity 
That ever seeks by any plan 
To bridge the rights of any man 
By forcing him to join a clan 

To have equality 
With all mankind wherever he 
Enjoys the boon of liberty, 
As God designed that man should see 

The priceless boon enjoyed, 
By heeding His divine commands 
To man to labor with his hands 
To eat the bread, man's soul demands 

To keep his hands employed. 
Nor does He say what creed or sect 
Should honor Him ? His laws respect,. 
But each and all by toil collect 

All things that mankind bless. 



31 



And only when we are employed 

In honest work is life enjoyed, 

But when man's right to work's destroyed, 

He's robbed of happiness. 
And free men ever will resist 
The forces of each unionist, 
Who would force all men to enlist 

In their fraternity ; 
Or else be thrown on the wayside, 
With want and hunger for a bride. 
But oft brave men have fought to ride 

O'er such paternity. 
For men who're to man's nature true, 
Will ne'er long to oppression sue. 
But will by native mettle hew 

A path through aught they see. 
To bar their steps towards the ray 
Of light they see to show the way. 
To hew into the dawn whose day 

Shines bright with victory. 
For manliness o'er arrogance. 
For justice o'er intolerance. 
For truth o'er vice and ignorance — 

That oft acts as the flail. 
To thresh the insolently blind, 
The fools, the sots and all their kind 
Who plan the strikes that leave behind 

Grim hunger when they fail. 
But when the union men have proved 
To all the world that they are moved 
With love, to all, who are not grooved 

In their community 
By working with non-union men 
In peace, to end in kinship when 
The men themselves seek kinship, then 

There'll be a unity. 
Whose bond will flourish and extend 
O'er all, to succor and defend — 
Weak ones, who will with union blend, 

To weather ev'ry gale 



32 

That blows from the rich men who strive 
Unrightously to storm the hive, 
Where unity doth live to thrive, 

And never strikes to fail, 
Because the ballot box will be 
The place where men would strike to see 
Preserved to them the liberty 

Wrung from a tyrant's hand 
By patriotic hosts led on 
By the heroic Washington, 
Whose name shines like the noonday sun,- 

To glorify the land. 
The land where freemen hoisted then 
The flag, whose bright stars light all men^ 
To freedom, and protects them, when 

The ballot box they use 
As becomes men worthy the name 
Of citizens, who suffrage claim 
To voice their scorn for those who aim 

The priv'lege to abuse 
By selling to men, base and bold. 
Their votes, the keys to all they hold 
Of liberty, gone for the gold 

Oft burns the traitor's hand 
Until 'tis gone — gone for the grog 
That makes him wallow in the bog 
Of filthiness — a loathsome frog — 

A reptile in the land 
Wherein he pleads for liberty, 
Equality, fraternity, 
With men who shun hi& company 

As they would shun the jail. 
And when the workingmen agree 
For aught of evil that they see 
Their honest vote's their remedy, 

Then their strikes will not fail. 



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